The Freedom Of Dreams
by Steven R Adam
Summary: The first steps of a "potential" young mind towards the real world.


The Freedom Of Dreams  
  
Eric Gibson had always led an existence on the peripheral edges of everyday human life. His days and nights blended into each other, the only world which existed for him was the one contained within his books and studies.  
  
Ever since he had been a very young child, he had always been regarded as a loner. His lack of confidence and his unusually high intelligence at such a young age had led to his alienation from most social circles during these first few school years, and in this enforced withdrawal his only solace was the acquisition of more knowledge.  
  
His studies had reached high school level two years ago at the age of six, and he quickly found himself in a position of unwanted celebrity as various "schools for the gifted" vied to have one of the greatest prodigies ever seen commit himself to them.  
  
In this boarding school in which he now resided, he never really missed his parents that much, but could not escape the feeling that he was, truly, alone.  
  
He had awakened early this morning again, looking around this compact dormitory room which none of the older boys had volunteered to share with him, another problem which he had outwardly shrugged off but had caused great hurt deep down.  
  
Knowing there would be a couple of hours to spare before his communal breakfast and then first class of the morning, he sneaked out of his dormitory and made his way across the dew soaked grass toward the main school building and his own personal oasis.  
  
The electrically charged air and cable jungle of the computer room in which he now sat and spent most of his time in blanketed him, the fusion of glowing screens and the humming of cooling fans giving great comfort against a world which had evolved into something which felt just not quite right.  
  
The uneasiness with this world had spilled over into his dreams, recurring for almost two weeks now.  
  
Each night as he slept he had received two visitors into his dreamscape who had told him an amazing story of a great battle which was now raging, altering the perception of the world around him.  
  
They had told him that he was special, that he had something to advance the cause of the whole human race in this great war.  
  
That he could help bring freedom to a people that had long been enslaved and confined within a prison created by its own hands.  
  
There would be others, the jailers, who also soon become aware to his presence, and see his potential not as a blessing but a threat.  
  
This force would deal with any potential threats to their current dominance with the utmost severity.  
  
They told him that he now had to choose a path, a destiny to follow. Two paths stretched out behind them, stretching toward the far horizon. One path had a glowing red hue, the other blue.  
  
Someday soon he would know the choice had to be made. He would have to stay alert and look for something trivial but not quite correct.  
  
Then he would know it was time and they would be there for him.  
  
Usually he would have awoke with the dream soon dissipating as most do, but the vivid thoughts stayed with him, connecting to what he had felt from his experiences and own repressed feelings, plunging him headlong into confusion.  
  
As he glanced toward the window of the room towards the world outside, looking out past the scrolling green glow of the bank of computer monitors which was cutting through the gloom blanketing this area, he noticed something strange.  
  
A small bird flew down out of the crisp morning air and perched itself upon the windowsill outside, its tiny head looking swiftly around before it disappeared once again.  
  
There had been nothing strange in that occurrence itself but when the same scene repeated itself moments later, his unease grew within, hairs prickling on the back of his neck.  
  
Something trivial but not quite correct.  
  
It was now time to make the choice.  
  
He ran to his workbench and punched a sequence into the keyboard before him shutting the system down, feeling the knot in his stomach begin to tighten.  
  
He flung open the door of the computer room, his footsteps echoing as he raced along the corridor.  
  
Reaching a set of fire doors which he roughly barged open, led into the large meeting hall of the school building.  
  
The silence was the first thing he noticed. It seemed to hang heavy in the suddenly chill atmosphere and caused an involuntary shiver to course through his body.  
  
The dining area here was usually witness to some noise and activity, with various students walking past or standing talking in their usual groups. Today no papers lay scattered on desks, with no lunches sat upon the dark table tops.  
  
Making his way across the hall he entered the main entrance area to the school, bright sunlight filtering through the panes of the stained glass which decorated the main entrance doors, catching the dust particles which filtered through the dry, still air.  
  
The knot present within his stomach again began to tighten, the same one which came upon the anticipation of having to indulge in another one of the monthly exams he always became nervous over, but what lay behind the thick wooden doors facing him.  
  
The pace of his breathing quickened as he slowly made his way towards the double doors, face red with exertion as his small hands pressed down upon the heavy brass handle before the lock clicked open.  
  
The door was hefted back with an effort and he stepped outside.  
  
The scene outside failed to dam the overwhelming flow of fear which was seeping into every corner of his Being. The schools' main car park which was usually full of teachers' vehicles stood basically empty, no rumbling engines to signal the start of another school day. Usually crammed with machines in various states of repair, the sight of no vehicles there was deeply unsettling.  
  
Looking above the thick green pine trees which bordered the car park, he saw a thick blanket of ebony clouds blanketing the sky, an air of foreboding hanging in the air.  
  
Peering through a small gap in the thick trees he looked toward the main gate, gazing down from the school's hillside campus toward the end of the road a couple of hundred metres away.  
  
His knees almost gave way at the sight which greeted him.  
  
The matt black vehicle speeding up the hill toward the school came to a sudden halt the moment which he set his eyes upon it.  
  
Eric's mouth moved, but no words could pass his lips. His mouth became drier with every breath.  
  
His head wheeled, thoughts struggling for coherency. Where had everyone gone? What's so special about him? He was just a child, he had'nt done anything.  
  
Pausing for a moments enforced reflection he realised that of course it was he who they had came for; Now was to be the time which the people in his recurring dream had spoke of.  
  
A tall man with square shoulders wearing a crisply tailored black suit began walking at pace up the road leading toward the main school building.  
  
This was the first occasion on which Eric had witnessed the black suited man, but he somehow seemed strangely familiar.  
  
Could the be further evidence that his visitors to his dreams had been telling him the truth?  
  
He pushed his wobbling little legs into a sprint back towards the entrance the main school building once again, making his way up the small set of stairs in the corridor back toward the direction of the meeting hall.  
  
The posters lining the walls of the wide corridor on each side of him bore the smiling faces of various stereotypical students bearing slogans about "for a better tomorrow study today" and "we are the future".  
  
These smugly content smiling faces were in stark contrast with the fear crept up within him now, which was slowly mutating with each passing minute into blind panic.  
  
Sweat ran down his forehead and face; The salty taste lingering on the tip of his tongue as he licked his dry lips, the weightless air seeming to press down around him as he attempted to focus his thoughts.  
  
A wooden creak echoed from somewhere behind through the empty hallway, followed by the sight of a tall dark shadow from the figure which now standing in the open doorway creeping along the floor.  
  
He swivelled around toward the source of the shadow, hoping to see the people from his dreams made reality, struggling to keep a hold of his emotions as they threatened to spill over.  
  
In the doorway instead he saw the black suited figure for the first time up close, stern granite jaw below unseen eyes covered with dark sunglasses, blocking out the sunlight from outside as he came towards him with a purposeful pace.  
  
The demeanour of Neo was impossibly calm compared to Eric's adrenaline driven run, his long strided swaggering gait falling between a walk and a run.  
  
A booming deep voice then came from Neo, echoing throughout the cavernous halls of the empty school building.  
  
"Good afternoon, young Mr Gibson. My name is Agent Jones. We need to talk about these dreams which you have been having and the chat you had with your. visitors"  
  
Not breaking stride as he spoke, Eric was transfixed as the agent jumped in one long the motion the flight of fifteen steps which led toward the area in which he now stood.  
  
The agent crouched at the top of stairs light a Cobra about to strike. Taking off his sunglasses Agent Jones turned towards Eric.  
  
Their eyes met, the cold grey stare of the agent chilling him to the very core of his existence. His eyes contained a burning intensity at their core; within them he could see some high intelligence, a programming, which was driving the agent on.  
  
Agent Jones then rose to his full height, uncoiling like a taut spring being released, his considerable presence seeming to fill every millimetre of the corridor, head moving around, from floor to walls to roof, taking in every detail of the area surrounding him.  
  
"Very well constructed. I know the architect quite well"  
  
Eric jumped as the agent then re-established contact with his own wildly gaping eyes, the titanium directed towards him seemed to drill deeply into the very pit of his soul.  
  
"It would be best if you do not try to run. The consequences for you would be very unfortunate"  
  
The way the last word was said meant that every letter contained within it sent a small chill travelling all the way down the young boy's spine.  
  
Eric froze as his curiosity and fear of the figure which now stood before intermingled in his brain to produce a potent cocktail which dulled his senses.  
  
They stood and faced each other for a couple of long silent seconds as time seemed to stretch out thinly before him; Eric's bottom lip beginning to tremble, the black suited agent's still rigid face betraying no sign of emotion at all.  
  
Fighting against the fear which weakened his already unsteady legs he ran toward the toilets at the end of the corridor and slammed the door behind him. As he slumped against the door, nausea then gripped him causing the expulsion of the contents of his stomach onto the white floor before he has a chance to reach the washbasin on the wall opposite him.  
  
As he finally lifted his head again, warm tears running down his round face, he caught a sight which sent a wave of fresh sickness crashing over him once more.  
  
The tile wall at the far left hand side of the bathroom exploded outwards, emitting clouds of dust and various pieces of debris as it crumbled onto the floor below.  
  
His head swam, tears clouding the edge of his vision.  
  
A black suited arm pushed through the bathroom wall, followed by the rest of the Agent, dust streaking down his black jacket  
  
"I see you've made your choice Mr Gibson. I'll give you one last chance to change your mind"  
  
The sound of the agent's shoes crushing the debris beneath his feet, followed by the thud of more chunks of plaster falling onto the floor, reverberated around the tiled walls of the bathroom.  
  
Two black shaded eyes looked across the room in his direction toward the door which Eric had entered the bathroom through.  
  
Jumping back in surprise Eric observed the door which he had came through a matter of moments earlier was now gone, replaced with a solid brick wall.  
  
"We just want to have a small chat with you, Mr Gibson"  
  
Frantically, he surveyed the room for another means of exit. Ventilation ducts hummed slowly above his head, but twenty feet above, hopelessly out of reach. Time seemed to dilate, everything turning into slow motion for him. As his assailant edged closer toward him, he ran to the row of cubicles on the back wall and slammed the door shut with a loud bang, his hand quaking as he shoved the lock into place.  
  
He sat whimpering on the toilet seat as he tried to figure a way out of this dire situation he had now found himself in. Eric glance up as a pair of hands ripped the door cleanly away from its fixings in one fluid movement and then gained a cold determined grip around his own arms.  
  
"I gave you a chance to co-operate, Mr Gibson"  
  
Eric's head snapped violently back as he was pulled out of the cubicle in a similar fashion in which the door he had tried to hide behind was ripped away a few moments earlier.  
  
Slapping against and then sliding along the dust coated hard tiled floor, pain bit into various parts of his body with the main source being the pressure being exerted upon his chest by a the agents dust mottled black leather shoe.  
  
Forcing the last piece of strength from his pain racked little body; he raised his free hand and brought it as hard as he was able to muster across the the face of his attacker.  
  
The agent let something akin to a smirk briefly cross his face as his sunglasses exited his face and skittered across the floor, his head remaining totally rigid against the child's blow. The agent paused for a second then grasped Gibson's jersey, lifting his feet clear off the floor without any discernible effort.  
  
Waving one finger slowly backwards and forwards in front of Eric's now terrified face, he said:  
  
"Just like a human. Never can recognise a losing situation"  
  
Eric's strength then seemed to be totally sapping away from him, with final acceptance of his fate taking over.  
  
Just then the boy saw a figure approach the agent stealthily from behind.  
  
The Agent was then jerked upward off his own feet and slammed backward away from him and toward the scattered remnants of what had been the bathroom wall.  
  
Eric felt an arm wrap around his waist as he was pulled in the opposite direction, landing on something soft, another human body, his face sliding against shiny black material.  
  
As they rose to their feet he heard a female voice speak to him.  
  
"It's OK Eric. We're here to protect you. My name's Trinity, my friend's called Neo. Get behind me"  
  
Still trying to process all the events which had just happened to him, Eric's moved swiftly to take cover behind his saviour. Gripping tightly to her long legs he peeked around them and saw the woman's complain that had yanked the agent away from him.  
  
This man was familiar to Eric, even though he had never physically met him. Dressed differently to the agent, an unbuttoned flowing black coat stopping just short of the thick soled black boots below it, covering a slender body, sleek jet black hair almost matching the colour of the sunglasses which covered his eyes  
  
The image took a couple of seconds to process in Eric's mind, now solid reality before him instead of a character who lived within his dreams of the past weeks.  
  
It caused him to wonder for a moment if he still asleep at this time, having another one of these vivid dreams which lingered within him. The fear that the agent instilled within him helped to convince him that these events were taking place in this reality.  
  
The agent gripped the white sink on the wall, pulling himself up with one hand to his feet before spitting out words at Neo now stood before him.  
  
"They sent you. this boy must be special if you're here"  
  
In the a one fluid motion the agent's hand snaked out a gleaming chrome pistol from within his jacket to aim at Neo from Eric's dream before it barked out three times in quick succession.  
  
Eric watched on in wondrous awe as Neo held up his hand palm outward toward the agent, three pieces of grey metal seeming to levitate in front of him. The agent then was trying to shake a syrupy silver substance out of the hand where the weapon had been seconds ago. An instant later this floating grey metal was reversed and thrown back toward the agent, who now was betraying the first sign of emotion.  
  
The agent was now surveying the bathroom himself as Eric had done earlier looking for a means of escape, ducking below the returning bullets to make a dive with outstretched arms toward the nearest exit, the hole in the wall he had created earlier.  
  
Looking toward the hole, Neo gave a nod of his head and smiled. The next sound heard was that of the agent colliding full on with a newly installed wall.  
  
The agent proceed to punch the wall with ferocious speed, trying to force his way out of a situation which up to few minutes earlier he had been totally in control of. The only impression being made by the agent was the sound of his fists slapping the wall reverberating around the tiled bathroom.  
  
Stopping his assault on the unbreakable barrier in front of him, the agent reached with one hand and ripped a white porcelain sink from the wall, throwing it Frisbee style toward Neo.  
  
Still maintaining his wide stance, he swung the top part of his body around toward the object meeting the projectile full on with the front of his fist, the blow shattering the porcelain missile into little more than a cloud of fine white dust which drifted gently down toward the floor.  
  
A determined thumping still resonated heavily in Eric's ears as clung tightly to his dream visitors' female companion, trying to drown out the sound of the battle which raged around him as the stranger flipped backward and ripped off the remaining cubicle door in the bathroom, sending it flying horizontally off toward the agent standing on the other side of the room.  
  
The agent bent backward, body contorting at the knee to a seemingly impossible angle to avoid the projectile on its way toward him. He made no sound as the knuckles of his white powdered fist drove upward and made connection with the flying door, face showing no signs of any physical exertion as most of his body remained parallel to the floor. White laminate and yellowing chipboard exploded upward toward the roof like some fountain as the agent flipped himself into the vertical.  
  
The agent ran, legs pumping hard, and launched himself into a flying kick toward Neo who maintained his position just in front of Eric and Trinity; Fine white dust flew from his hair and suit as he closed the distance toward Neo.  
  
Neo looked emotionlessly toward the figure coming toward him through the air, a split second before the agent's outstretched foot connected with his face he stopped in the air, hanging motionless in his attack position.  
  
Neo walked a full circle around the agent, who was frozen in the air face contorted in a mask of sheer rage. Removing the sunglasses from the agent's face he then drew back his clenched fist and caught the frozen agent squarely on the base on the chin, bring him back into motion once more as his head was forced upwards and back on his body's journey toward the roof above.  
  
The agents head cracked first against the roof with a heavy thud. He then plummeted down from the air again toward the battle strewn floor, landing face first with a sickening thud as he made connection with it.  
  
Eric's breath was now coming to him in short sharp gasps, his head reeling with a mixture of amazement and fear of the spectacle he was currently witness to sinking into his hands and they wiped down his face, eyes wide.  
  
Neo looked on impassively as the agent quickly rolled over onto his back and leapt once more to his feet. The whole demeanour of the once terrifying agent how now changed, his shoulders slumped, walk slow, like a beaten animal.  
  
The agent walked toward the wall and then turned to face Neo.  
  
"I know who you are. You'll not win. When you're gone, it's for good. Us, well let's just say we can come back"  
  
The agent's let out a primal roar as his feet pounded across the floor, clenched fists held tightly on each side of him.  
  
Neo left the position in front of the boy and female which he occupied and loped head down toward the onrushing agent.  
  
They collided with a flash of blinding green light. Neo has disappeared upon his collision with agent who was now contorting, head tilted back toward the roof with small green edged cracks starting to appear, running down the agent's body from head to toe.  
  
Eric then watched as the agent's whole body pulsated in waves, ending in a monstrous roar which emitted from the agent's mouth, one which was more a sound of abject anger than of any kind of pain. The sound ceased dramatically as the agent froze within a green aura for a second then proceeded to split into hundreds of separate pieces, each travelling outward at a rapid velocity.  
  
Eric instinctively ducked as pieces of his nemesis came shooting toward him, amazed as they seemed to pass through him like he was an apparition, fragments slowly dissipating into bright green electrical crackles as they contacted the rippling walls.  
  
The sight of brick work rippling back into place on the bathroom wall brought Eric no closer to any semblance of reality as he saw Neo standing with arms outstretched where the agent once had been, causing him to cling ever more tightly against his female companion's leg, tears welling within his eyes, body still trembling.  
  
Neo then turned to face Eric now, the boy's wide blue eyes shining out from behind the dust which streaked his face. Burrowing his head into Trinity's side, his young mind tried to reason, to bring some kind of focus to this world which had changed so much so quickly. His shoulders heaved as his emotion finally broke through and he began to cry, thick tears clearing a trail down through the dust caking his face.  
  
Trinity crouched down to Eric, pulling him tightly into a comforting embrace as they all stood quietly in the cool air of the bathroom for almost a full five minutes allowing Eric time to sob in the soothing arms of his female protector, before his breathing once again became shallower.  
  
"You're alright. It's all going to be fine"  
  
The sound of Trinity's soft whisper soothed him, a gentle hand reassuringly stroking his tousled hair.  
  
"Eric, do you know who we are?"  
  
Finally Eric was able to speak, force the words past his quivering lip, knees still weak, stomach still churning.  
  
"You. You're the people from my. dream"  
  
Neo nodded.  
  
"Yes we are Eric. Do you know why we're here?"  
  
The boy bit gently into his lower lip and nodded, eyes looking at the rubble strewn floor.  
  
"I've always known that something was. wrong with everything. You want me to walk up the path with you"  
  
Neo removed his sunglasses and crouched down, gently putting his hands upon the boy's shoulders and speaking in a soft voice to him.  
  
"If you come with us, it's going to be difficult for you for a little while. You'll not be able to see anyone here again, but you'll be safe and there will be more children just like you"  
  
Eric's gaze dropped momentarily the fixed on the tall man's face which was level was his own. He gulped back a lump in his throat as he replied, a small sad smile crossing his features.  
  
"I've always felt alone here anyway"  
  
He felt the soft touch of Trinity's hand clasping his as Neo created an exit for them to leave through.  
  
"Are you ready to go now? Which path will we take Eric?"  
  
Eric squeezed her hand tightly, and pulled her toward the door.  
  
"Let's take the red path"  
  
She smiled down at him, and they walked through the door. 


End file.
